The FOI-2582 and FOI-2852 both provide complete electrical isolation for asynchronous RS-422 communications. The units are transparent to all handshaking protocols and can accept signals up to a maximum rate of 6.144 Mbps. The units have one fiber optic channel and can only accept one data, clock, or control signal for uni-directional communications.

The units can be used in areas of high electrical noise or in and out of RF shielded enclosures. The fiber optic cable is not susceptible to interference caused by impulse noise, crosstalk, or EMI. Privacy of communications is also enhanced because the fiber optic cable does not radiate any emissions.

In addition, fiber optic cable offers much longer transmission distances than traditional triax cabling. Multimode optics on the units can extend the distance to 2km. A typical link consists of an FOI-2582 at one end of the network transmitting optical signals to an FOI-2852 at the other end of the network with a single fiber optic cable between them.